The Joy Of Track Pants

The Joy Of Track Pants

I’ve recently acquired a pair of track pants. They are soft. They are warm. They are comfortable. I haven’t worn or even thought of wearing track pants since childhood, instead opting for jeans from dawn til dusk, but I’ve since rediscovered a world of comfort known only to those who don soft pants. I suggest you do the same.

Photo by Quinn Dombrowski via Flickr.

The pants were serendipitous. I didn’t wake up one morning and decide that I needed a pair; rather, they were included in a set of clothing designed to deliver a variety of basic essentials in a package (from Basic Outfitters — which yes, I saw on Shark Tank and ordered because I’m a helpless dolt when it comes to mundane daily necessities). I didn’t think I needed track pants but there they were, part of the set, so I ordered them anyway because I needed more socks and underwear.

What a laughable thought in retrospect — “I didn’t think I needed track pants.” Reader, we all need track pants.

As you might imagine of someone who works in an informal industry, I am more often than not wearing a T-shirt and jeans. From the start of the day when I dress until bed time, T-shirt and jeans. That has been my life and it has been fine. It hadn’t occurred to me that other clothes — something in genre of “loungewear” — would be more comfortable to wear during off hours. Something like track pants.

For some of you this is not new knowledge. For me it is a comfort discovery.

Once the sweatpants arrived at my doorstep, I decided to give them a go, the old college try. I was immediately greeted with a soft pant unlike anything I’ve experienced in years, like being swaddled in a blanket that is shaped like pants. A pants blanket. Is choosing comfort over style a ‘hack’? Perhaps not. But it is a small change that has improved my life and may improve yours.

These particular pants have zippered pockets and a slightly tapered leg that remind me of the $US100 ($130) Nike sweatpants featured a few years ago Jezebel, which apparently had a substantial fan base among men in 2014. These Basic Outfitters pants cost $US30 ($39), though, when bought alone. There’s nothing fancy about them — nothing fancy, but they are soft and nice.

I’ve since gotten into the habit of changing into track pants at the end of the day when I know I’m not going to leave the house any more, and it has improved my life in a small, warm, comfortable way. I don’t wear them outside; I’m not judgemental of people who do wander the earth in track pants, but I would personally feel too exposed in my soft pants to do so. Perhaps to the corner bodega but not beyond. The track pants are for me, in my home, when I am already done with the world.

If you enjoy comfort, I suggest you too wear track pants.

When you get home after a long day’s work, and you know you don’t need to venture out or entertain anyone, change into the track pants and you will be happier. If it’s Saturday and you won’t leave the house until sunset (if at all), wear the track pants. If it’s a weekday and you aren’t obligated to trudge to an office, wear the track pants. No, it is not a glamorous look. It is, however, a glamorous feel.

With bad news every day feeling pugilistic in its relentlessness and my own responsibilities swelling like an ominous storm cloud loitering on the horizon, I have been trying to eke out the minute pleasures in life, the little comforts that make it easier to exist at all. I chose track pants. I recommend you do the same.


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